Fresh Water Tank Removal and Maintenance-gctid808919

[rossi45]

Spent the balance of the day tinkering on the boat at dock. I had planned to fix a dripping pex pipe fitting for my fresh water tank a while ago. I decided that, while I made the repair, I might as well pull the water tank out and give it a good cleaning. I have the typical stack of tanks (fresh water on top of black water) on the starboard side down in the engine bay in my '01 2455. It wasn't too difficult of a job. Pulled out the heat gun and removed the intake hose and one of the deck drain hoses that was in the way. I also noticed the overflow hose wasn't connected so I need to figure out why that was. Anyways, I pulled out the tank and gave it a good clean. I could peer inside through some of the fittings and noticed a little bit of dirt in there, so I took the hose and blasted the inside through the fittings and it looks pretty spotless in there now.

Now, I have decided I am going to get a new intake hose because the old one feels a little brittle. The one thing I noticed is that all of these pipes have clamps on them and they also have some sort of sealant on the fittings after I pulled the hose.

Question #1: What kind of sealant is this? I've been digging around and can't seem to find anything.

Question #2: Does anyone have any advice at getting at the end of the intake hose that connect to the metal filler cap? Do i just buy the hose, get some sealant, apply the sealant to the filler cap fitting and the tighten down the clamp and then do the tank fitting next?

Question #3: Is there anything else I should be thinking about while I do this? I gave the black water tank a good once over and a wipe down, but there's no chance I'm going to try to remove that one if it's not leaking...:sick:

[rossi45]

For anyone who's interested, I managed to pop into one of the marine shops here in town and explained what I was doing to one of the old pros. He basically answered my questions when I asked about the sealant. He said there shouldn't be any sealant. The stainless steel clamp should do the job, along with a good hose. If the hose is leaking around the fitting, then that's a good time to replace it, I guess. I'll head out this weekend and measure up my fresh water tank intake hose and while I'm at it, I'm going to replace all my deck drain hoses as well. The stuff isn't crazy expensive, so it's a good time to take care of it all.

[builderdude]

I too had sealant on all my fittings, threads and hose connection ends. It felt like a urethane to me and I did use some during the installation of the new hose and fittings. Fgured it sure can't hurt anything, but like you say if the hoses and clamps are good quality probably not necessary.